One and a Half Cheers for Integralism: Liberalism’s Broken Promises and the New Draw of the Confessional State

The rising interest in integralism and Christian nationalism, especially among the young, does not portend a future in which Western Christians celebrate and defend religious liberty, if present trends continue. This article argues that this new draw of the confessional state should not surprise us if we reflect on the ways in which liberalism—the political theory that we typically associate with the rise of religious liberty in the West—has lost its cultural salience among elites who at one time fancied themselves as liberalism’s most strident apologists. Those drawn to integralism see the many cultural projects of these elites as working in concert to establish what is tantamount to a secular confessional state. Because the traditional custodians of liberalism have effectively broken their promises, the integralist-curious rarely find the boilerplate appeals to religious toleration—that were so effective in prior generations—remotely convincing.